How To Choose The Best Server for A Small Business In 2018

I think you’ll agree with me that choosing the best server for a small business can be a difficult process. With so many providers and server options to choose from, it’s almost impossible to know where to begin.

It doesn’t have to be this complicated.

It turns out, there are just four things to really consider when choosing a small business server. In today’s article, I’m going to show you exactly what to look for so that you make the right decision for your business.

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Research is important when choosing a server, but we recommend consulting a server expert when selecting a server for your small business. Our team has worked with thousands of businesses, so we know what will work best. Book a free consultation today and we’d be happy to craft the perfect server for you.

Here is what you'll learn in this article:

1. What small business servers can be used for.

2. The best server operating system to use for your business.

3. Which type of server you'll need.

4. How to get an expert opinion for your specific project needs.

Download Our 5 Step Guide to Choosing the Perfect Small Business Server

Looking to setup a server? Download our guideand find out how to choose a server that will transform your business.

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What is a small business server?

A server is a remote computer that is always on and connected to the internet. It can be used to host a diverse variety of services and applications that are accessed and controlled over the internet.

A small business server can power all of these services and more. A powerful server is capable of supporting all of them simultaneously, although there are benefits to splitting functionality between several smaller servers, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket.

Start things off right by choosing this critical component

Selecting the right server operating system from the start can mean the difference between harmony and chaos.

Why does it matter?

Although a server is similar to a desktop PC, it differs in key ways. Desktop machines are single-user environments with which users interact directly. Servers are multi-user machines that provide services for many different people and which are interacted with over network connections. Because servers are used differently, they need a server-specific operating system.

Let’s break down the main choices:

The majority of servers use either Linux or Microsoft Windows Server as their operating system.

Linux is an operating system built specifically for multi-user server environments. Linux is available in a large number of distributions, and each distribution provides a complete server operating system with a package manager that allows users to easily install software such as a web server or email server.

Popular Linux server distributions include CentOS, Ubuntu, and Debian.

Microsoft Windows Server is a proprietary operating system designed for servers. It includes Microsoft-developed server applications like the IIS web server, tools for supporting virtualization, and security tools including a firewall.

Linux-based server operating systems are by far the most popular choice — they’re usually free, preferred by expert system administrators, and can support a huge quantity of high-quality open source software, most of which is also free.

But there’s a catch...

Linux-based operating systems have a steep learning curve for small business owners. If you’re familiar with Windows and prefer to manage your server with a GUI rather than on the command line, Windows Server is a better option. If you need to run Microsoft software like Sharepoint, Active Directory, or MS SQL, Windows Server is the only choice.

Small business servers can be divided into two basic types: dedicated servers and cloud servers. Both provide a complete, self-contained server environment — the difference lies in how the underlying server hardware is used.

1. Dedicated Servers

A dedicated server is a physical server used by a single business. Dedicated servers are similar to desktop computers, but they use server-grade hardware that is more reliable and usually more powerful than most desktop computers.

Dedicated servers are the most powerful small business server option. They range from moderately powerful machines capable of supporting a busy website to massively powerful machines with dozens of processors and hundreds of gigabytes of memory. The most powerful dedicated servers can support high-traffic websites and eCommerce stores, applications with many thousands of concurrent users, and massive databases.

One or more moderately powerful dedicated servers are more than capable of supporting the application, web, and database hosting needs of a small business.

Dedicated servers are typically leased on a monthly or yearly basis.

2. Cloud Server

Cloud servers can be thought of as a slice of a physical server. Each cloud server is a complete server environment that appears identical to a dedicated server from the perspective of the user, but is in fact a virtual machine running in software on enterprise-grade server hardware. Each physical server can support many cloud servers.

There are several advantages to choosing a cloud server:

Cloud servers can be deployed instantly via a web-based control panel.

You can deploy as many cloud servers as you need with no delay.

Cloud servers can be quickly scaled to accommodate changing demand

Cloud Servers and Hybrid Servers operate on essentially the same principles. The difference lies in the resources they have available and the way they are paid for.

Hybrid Servers are very powerful virtual servers. Each Hybrid Server has the same resources as a lower-tier dedicated server.

It’s important to understand that each of the server options we’ve discussed offers a complete server environment capable of supporting any server application. All our servers can be used with either Linux-based operating systems or Microsoft Windows Server. Which is best for your small business depends on its particular requirements.

Dedicated servers are the best choice when performance is the most important factor. They’re the ideal server platform for high-traffic websites and eCommerce stores, big data analytics and other number crunching applications, applications with large numbers of users, and for high-load database or file storage. Dedicated servers are also ideal when a small business wants to guarantee that they are the only organization with access to the server hardware, something that may be relevant to regulatory compliance.

Cloud Servers offer the ultimate in flexibility. If you expect to need new servers regularly on short notice — as testing or development servers, to rapidly scale to support additional load, or to host new products — cloud servers are an excellent choice.

Hybrid Servers sit between dedicated servers and cloud servers. They are less expensive than dedicated servers, but also less powerful, although the most powerful hybrid servers are competitive with lower-tier dedicated servers.

Ultimately, small businesses don’t have to choose the perfect small business server. ServerMania offers a diverse selection of server hosting options so that businesses can choose the right mix of infrastructure for their particular needs. Many small businesses use dedicated servers to host business-critical long-term applications while taking advantage of cloud servers for their scalability and on-demand pricing.

Hopefully, this article will help you choose the right small business server for your company. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with our sales team if you have questions.

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Great work Andrew.

It always becomes difficult when starting a new business. Mostly for beginners. You have explained each and every point in details starting from what is server? to which server is best for your business? Loved it!

Hi and thanks for such an informative article! Choice of hosting is quintessential and has controlling results as to how you can develop you software products, what technologies are compatible with the server software, and security implications and differences among the various server software! Thanks

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11 months ago

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Stephen Druley

My business need is to send out a graphic every 15 seconds to my website. The software is proprietary beyond measure. I was thinking about having the server in my home but I wouldn’t know what to do with it. The president of my company is doing a good job for me in setting up the licensing and payment mechanisms. My job as owner and software author is to create a .png or some appropriate file structure that can send these files to my website . The idea is that about 80,000 customers would pay me about $195 a month… Read more »